Tracy Spiridakos, Anna Pigeon
Versant Media[Warning: The following contains minor spoilers for the first episode of Anna Pigeon.]
When Tracy Spiridakos left Chicago P.D. in 2024 after a seven-season run playing Detective Hailey Upton, she didn’t have a plan for what she wanted to do next. Once the script for Anna Pigeon came her way, it was like the stars had aligned.
“To be completely honest, I didn’t know what I was specifically looking for when I left P.D. It was more I was curious as to what was out there for me. And this just felt like the right fit,” Spiridakos, who stars as the titular heroine and is also a co-executive producer, tells TV Guide. “I found [Anna] to be this wild free spirit who is impulsive, deeply curious, and acts on her impulses and her emotions in a way that I hadn’t gotten to play a character in a long time.”
Anna Pigeon, USA Network’s 10-episode mystery-of-the-week adaptation of Nevada Barr’s best-selling novels, follows the former New Yorker-turned-nomadic national park ranger as she investigates crimes committed within the borders of Montana’s Glacier National Park. But Anna is also running from her past. Following the shocking murder of her late husband Zach (Jordan Sledz), she hasn’t stayed rooted in one place for long. For better or for worse, she’s tallied five parks in three years and is about to move on to her sixth when the suspicious death of a fellow park ranger — who, at first, appears to be the victim of a cougar attack but turns out to be a casualty of something far more nefarious — causes her to rethink her next move. Lifted from Barr’s first novel, Track of the Cat, originally published in 1993, the mystery is one of two books the first season directly brings to life with the help of showrunner Morwyn Brebner and executive producer/director Lea Thompson.
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Spiridakos talks to TV Guide about her decision to return to series television with Anna Pigeon, embracing the differences between this character and her past Chicago P.D. role, and the “juicy” mysteries that await.
After Chicago P.D., what made you dive back into series television with Anna Pigeon?
Tracy Spiridakos: The main thing that drew me to this show was the script. I was not familiar with the books beforehand and my reps sent me the pilot to read, and I just fell in love with it. I’m an outdoorsy person myself and so getting to play this complicated, fun character who was outside in nature, adventuring around, solving mysteries sounded like a really fun thing for me. I was in as soon as I read it and saw how interesting the character was.
What was it about Anna that you identified with? What was your first impression of her after that first readthrough of the script?
Spiridakos: What I really loved is I found her to be this wild free spirit who is impulsive, deeply curious, and acts on her impulses and her emotions in a way that I hadn’t gotten to play a character in a long time. I love Hailey [from Chicago P.D.]. She was such a fun character to play, but she’s really different. She’s much more controlled. Everything was really contained. She was quite serious and a pretty intense person. Anna is going through grief and she’s got this sadness and intensity to her, but you can see a little bit of that lightness so it’s a little different tonally. She, as a character, has this difference in approaching life that I was really attracted to.
Did you eventually read the books or have a conversation with Nevada Barr?
Spiridakos: I did read Track of the Cat and I’m going to read them all.
That’s a lot of books to get through.
Spiridakos: Yeah, but they’re awesome. We only adapted two of the books in the first season, so the rest of the 10 episodes are not from the books. I think it is important for people who are fans of the books [to know] that there are going to be some familiar things and also some new things that our writers have created.
But I got to meet Nevada. She happened to be in Calgary while we were there filming and she had come down and a few of us had dinner with her and her husband. She’s an incredible, very interesting person. It just happened to all line up. Morwyn was passionate about making sure the books and the characters all come through and she kept it as close to the books as she could while still making the changes she needed for it going to television. And now, having read the book after getting to play, I can see it [come to life onscreen] and I think Morwyn did a wonderful job.
Readers of the books have said that Anna is basically Nevada in book form. Did you take note of any mannerisms or quirks that you worked into your performance?
Spiridakos: We didn’t get to spend that much time together for me to get to do a dive into her in that way. We had just a few hours together, but I feel like they’re their own separate things.
The blueprint for the story and the characters are sourced from the novels, but there are still creative liberties taken in bringing the series to life. Are you excited about digging into these characters’ backstories?
Spiridakos: Yeah, definitely. More is revealed about Anna’s past and different relationships — even the relationship that she has with [her sister] Molly [played by Tricia Helfer], who is her only pillar of stability, and we get to see what that looks like. There’s an episode later on where we get to see them in the same place.
That was my next question. I was wondering if you would be in the same room together eventually.
Spiridakos: Yes! You get to see them together. I won’t say where and what happens, but you do see them together. What’s really cool to see is it just kind of happens where Anna turns [to Molly and] you can see the little sister in her come out and the dynamic shifts. They talk every day; she and Molly are on the phone through every mystery and everything that she’s going through, Molly helps Anna solve it. She’s bouncing ideas and they work together in so many ways. But then when you see them in the same place, the sibling [dynamic] comes out and it’s one of my favorite episodes. It was a fun one to film and it was unexpected, for me at least, to see what that dynamic would look like when we were around each other.
You and Tricia look so much alike, it’s uncanny.
Spiridakos: That’s a very kind thing to say. Thank you very much. Wow, that’s a huge compliment. She’s so tall. Every time she walks up, I feel like I’m just a little kid looking at her in awe. She’s such a beautiful human being inside and out, and she’s so kind. It’s really fun to work with her.
How did you create that sibling dynamic, especially since most of it is established through phone conversations?
Spiridakos: That’s all in the writing. Our writers really cared [about] taking the time to [develop] these relationships we’re showing so you could see the dynamic between them come through. I have to give all that credit to Morwyn and the writing team who really gave us a lot to play with.
One of the questions that’s raised early on is the mystery behind what happened to Zach and how he died. While the first episode drops initial seeds, the second episode hints at a lot more through flashbacks and nightmares Anna has.
Spiridakos: It gets pretty juicy. Throughout Anna’s flashbacks, we get to see more [of Zach] and more gets revealed throughout the season. We get to find out a little bit as to what’s happened within her memory of it.
Anna begins hooking up with the hot bartender Jesse (Cooper Levy). What’s her goal there?
Spiridakos: She’s a complicated person and right now, particularly with relationships, she just can’t quite figure out what she wants in any relationship, not only romantic but even in friendship dynamics I think she’s so taken by her grief that all she wants to do is be alone and dabble, and then go back to being alone. And these relationships throughout the series, you will see them shift and change. Jesse is there throughout the season, but you’ll see it’s going to ebb and flow a little bit as to what their deck is going to look like. Their dynamic is one that has an impact on her in a lot of ways.
There’s also Jeremiah (Kim Coates), who has big goals about what he wants to do with the park’s land in his mission to take it over. Is he Anna’s biggest foe or a thorn in her side?
Spiridakos: I don’t know if it’s that he’s a thorn in Anna’s side or if it’s more that Anna’s a thorn in his. She’s got her eye on him and her passion is nature and the parks and all the animals within it, so she’s going to do everything that she can to protect that. Jeremiah has his own goals, so they definitely butt heads throughout the series. But he can’t quite get away from her as much as he tries. [Laughs]
Is there anything you learned through your experience making Anna Pigeon since you’re on location a good amount?
Spiridakos: One of the things that I learned was to be prepared for anything. We had days where we would be filming and on the same day, we had the most gorgeous sunny day, and then a thunderstorm that then turned into a hailstorm that then became sun, and then rained and hailed again later on in the day. It happened several times, so you’re in the elements and to be prepared for that. That was the biggest one. We’d have to pause filming because there was hail or whatever the elements were.
Because the show is set at a national park, you’re naturally outside a lot. Your character is caught in some hairy situations. One of the more memorable ones was in the first episode when you’re hanging off the side of a cliff. Was there a physical stunt where you were like, “I can’t believe I’m doing this”?
Spiridakos: I love stunt stuff and I was really fortunate. My stunt double, Taylor, was so wonderful. She was always there with me and did some of the crazier stuff. But I got to do as much as they would let me. I remember showing up one day, and they were like, “You have to climb this tree” — and it was quite a tall tree — “and get to the top.” I didn’t know how, so we had gone the day before we filmed and they taught me how to climb a tree with just these little rappels to pull myself up. That was a very cool experience. Initially, I was intimidated by it because there were no branches to hang on to on the way up. I remember being like, “How do I do that?” Our stunt coordinator was really wonderful. Her name’s Leslie [McMichael], and she made sure that I felt great about everything. Everything was always really safe, so I felt comfortable exploring and doing things that I hadn’t normally done before.
Earlier this year you returned to the One Chicago world as a major part of the three-part crossover with Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. How did it feel dipping your toe back in as Upton and were you satisfied with how it played out? Would you go back in the future?
Spiridakos: It was really, really fun. It was really fun to put on that hat again of being Hailey. You’re with this character for so many years — seven years — and for nine to 10 months of the year. So it was really fun to get to see where she was. Was she a little different now since she’d left? I found her to be. And getting to see the old cast and crew again, being back in Chicago, it was a ton of fun. Absolutely, I would go back and play anytime. It was our decision to leave and it was really a sad [goodbye]. I love everyone and so it was really great to get to go back.
What do you want people to take away when they tune into Anna Pigeon?
Spiridakos: I hope everyone has fun on the adventure that we’re taking them on. It’s an hour in nature, escaping the city life with us. And there’s mystery, there’s adventure, there’s romance, but it’s also character-driven stories. I just hope everyone enjoys the ride that is Anna Pigeon.
New episodes of Anna Pigeon premiere Fridays at 10/9c on USA Network.